Holy cow, how did this happen?

I have a counter installed on my blog and that counter usually gives me very depressing news like "you have no hits, not even from your own mother". Just joking about the mother part, she doesn't know about this blog or about me being an atheist and I like to keep it that way. Telling her that would be like giving my neck to a hungry rattle snake. Not that I'm equating my own mother with a snake or anything. She's an extremely nice lady.
Ok, back to the main topic. My counter gives depressing news, especially after I neglected posting for 2 weeks. However, today the counter gives great news. Take a look at this.

That is the most hits I've got in one day since I started this blog. What's going on here?
That wasn't the only good news I've got from the counter today. My usual visitors are mainly from Australia, probably has something to do with me telling all my friends about my blog and them logging on almost everyday to read my boring rants. But today I've got this
Exactly, how exactly did American visitors take over? Last time I checked, US was trailing by 20%.